The situation described by the IHS Jane’s analysts is beyond being worrisome, it is terrifying. According to their calculations, about 100 thousand militants are active in Syria. About half of them are extreme radicals, the proponents of fundamental Islam or foreign hired guns. Other 30 thousand are moderate Islamists. The analysts of the center do not clarify what exact criteria were used to evaluate the degree of moderate views of the militants in the last category. They only state that that the most influential groups in Syria are the Al-Nusra Front and The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The latter organization is a Syrian affiliate of the Iraqi Front The Islamic State of Iraq. Both of them are closely tied to Al Qaeda and have already begun open fight against their competitors from the Free Syrian Army. The information used by the analytical center IHS Jane’s was based on the analysis of the military actions, interviews with the leaders of the militant groups and the testimonies of witnesses.
Experts from the UN confirm the information. On September 16 the commission looking into human rights abuse in Syria presented a report on the state of affairs in this area. The report says that the radicalization of the militant groups is being sharply escalated. Terrorism against the local population is growing along with this escalation.
«Even in Bosnia and other Yugoslavia republics I cannot recall such cruelty that is now present in Syria», - says Carla del Ponte, a member of the UN Commission and a former Prosecutor of the International Tribunal, in her interview to the Swiss TV channel RTS.
«The reports of the British organization that half of the opposition militants are jihadists are quite true. I would even say that in reality there are a lot more jihadists in Syria than half».
In his turn, the head of the commission Paulo Pinheiro has stated that mass massacre of the civilian population is taking place in Syria in the situation of complete impunity. It is especially typical of the Northern regions of the country, where mostly the Al-Nusra Front and The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant are active. The violence of the militants grows proportionately to their inflow from abroad, says Pinheiro.
«Over the last six weeks the number of reports of foreign journalists being kidnapped by the anti-government extremists has sharply increased. A sharp increase in the number of crimes performed by the antigovernment groups has been registered over the entire Northern part of Syria. Simultaneously, a significant increase in the number of militants arriving from abroad has been registered here. Today entire brigades of militants consist of foreigners».
According to the UN data, over 100 thousand people have fallen victim to the conflict in Syria by now. Two million Syrian citizens have been forced to flee to the neighbor states. Six million of Syrians are internal refugees. Due to the civil war they have lost their homes and had to leave their home regions.
On Tuesday the state television of Syria reported clashes between the Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra and the other rebel groups near the Syrian town of Homs. 22 people were killed
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